Pages

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

The Gallery .... Self Portrait

I'm joining in with The Gallery this week and the theme is Self Portrait ...

I'm not good at being in front of the camera and much happier behind the lens. I tend, if someone does point a camera at me, to develop a rictus grin and a then immediately grab said camera and delete the usually offending image. Thank all gods for the digital camera I say, so much easier than having a bonfire every time a roll of film is developed. And cheaper.

Though once upon a time, an artist drew my portrait ...

By Staz Johnson, mid-80s ish

Well, alright so he was a cartoonist (and, on the evidence of this portrait, a total fantasist too). But he did end up having a career drawing for Marvel Comics which allows me to regularly waft said portrait around in front of an unutterably jealous, Marvel-obsessed TeenTwin1. *Happy sigh*

Thirty years later and this is my own self portrait ...

By Me, 2012

It was shot in the mirror of the ladies toilets while at one of The Man's gigs at the end of last year. I'm wearing a tailcoat TeenTwin2 borrowed from the school's drama department which, for one night only, I misappropriated and is entirely the reason that I'm taking my own photograph in a ladies loo in the first place. Not a habit, I assure you, that I usually have. The tailcoat had to be forcibly removed from me when it needed returning and I'm still haunting the charity and vintage shops of Yorkshire to find another. I'm also wearing jeans that are just about as old as the TeenTwins and a man's vest tastefully decorated with a skull. I am nothing, if not rock n roll.
You can't see much of my face but to be honest you wouldn't see much of it whether the camera was in the way or not, I am mostly hair with the occasional flashes of cheekbone and an eye. But I do like this shot, it reminds me of who I am when I'm just being me.

This is my entry into The Gallery, please check out everyone else's self-portraits over at Sticky Fingers